Artwork Information

Gary Blackman is one of the leading New Zealand photographers

of the post-war era and an instrumental figure in helping

photography gain recognition as fine art. Many of his

photographs capture environments in and around Dunedin where

Blackman lived and worked as Associate Professor

of Pharmacology at the University of Otago Medical School. His

photography balances a stark formalism and detached coolness

with strong humanist undercurrents and a deep connection with

place. Scenes of people spilling out onto the footpath at 6 o’clock

closing, or children watching scrub burn, are freighted with

energy and anticipation. Blackman’s photographic portraits of

leading artists and writers reveal a similar feeling of engagement

and concern for his subject. He was one of the first

photographers to capture crumbling colonial buildings and to

establish vernacular architecture as a major theme of

photographic practice in Aotearoa New Zealand. The ‘Islay

Downs’ series is one of Blackman’s earliest photo essays and

reveals the influence of Dorothea Lange and Edward Weston.